Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that steel import permit applications for the month of September totaled 1,967,000 net tons (NT). This was a 9.4 percent decrease from the 2,172,000 permit tons recorded in August and a 2.7 percent decrease from the August final imports total of 2,022,000.
Import permit tonnage for finished steel in September was 1,510,000, down 15.9 percent from the final imports total of 1,794,000 in August. For the first nine months of 2019 (including September SIMA permits and August final imports), total and finished steel imports were 22,658,000 NT and 16,842,000 NT, down 13.4 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2018. The estimated finished steel import market share in September was 17 percent and is 20 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Products with significant year-to date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2018 include black plate (up 95 percent), steel piling (up 50 percent) and tin free steel (up 25 percent).
In September, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (150,000 NT, down 43 percent from August final), Japan (75,000 NT, down 44 percent), Germany (69,000 NT, down 8 percent), Taiwan (60,000 NT, down 1 percent) and Vietnam (52,000 NT, up 9 percent). Through the first nine months of 2019, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,042,000 NT, down 11 percent from the same period last year), Japan (1,019,000 NT, down 4 percent) and Germany (836,000 NT, down 15 percent).
Published in the November 2019 Edition